Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope. It was one of countless similar songs published for the beneﬁt of the proles by a sub-section of the … Continue reading Live From The Chestnut Tree Café: The Most Significant Albums Of 1984

…and to what degree said songs were welcomed is lost to posterity. Although there was probably some element of reciprocation, what with something entitled Five Wow Songs Addressed To Boys scheduled to be posted just as soon as I get round to it… The Mission / Fabienne Pompous, overblown, bedecked in chiffon scarves – onstage … Continue reading Dear ____ : Five Wow Songs Addressed To Girls…

#18: The Teardrop Explodes – Seven Views Of Jerusalem (1981) The Teardrop Explodes – band name harvested from a panel in a Daredevil comic. Wilder, their second and final album, is a fascinating listen. Début LP Kilimanjaro is a ballsy, occasionally boisterous affair that swaggers across the stereo speakers as if a statement of intent. … Continue reading FuckedUpFestiveFifty #18: The Teardrop Explodes

Below the words, a Julian Cope track. Something from his début solo album; not necessarily his most accessible, certainly not his most intriguing, yet round these parts it is considered his most accomplished. World Shut Your Mouth was released in 1984, a year or more after the Teardrop Explodes disintegrated. It’s a record dictated by … Continue reading Julian Cope vs Russian Poetry

Two tracks tonight. Something a little different to the usual indie fayre. And fewer words too – or at least fewer words that feature the author bemoaning this, that and t’other. You can blame Julian Cope (for the musical tangents that is, not the fugue of bleh). T’was when watching the Arch Drood performing “World … Continue reading When Watching Julian Cope on Top Of The Pops